HOME & NEWS


Introduction.

Hi there!

How wonderful is it, being able to welcome you on my website. I'm glad that I've somehow driven your attention, otherwise you probably wouldn't be here ain't I right? Perhaps we've met in real life, perhaps you've heard of my journey from someone nearby, or perhaps you ended up on this site completely by accident.  Anyway, for now I would like to take the possibility to let me introduce myself to you. If you already know me, or introductions aren't your thing, feel free to scroll a bit further  down into the news.

 

My name is Freerk Blom. A watersport enthusiast from Hindeloopen, which is a small city in the dutch province called Friesland. I'm currently twenty years young, and two years ago I graduated on  'Atheneum' level in high school. This finally lifted a big weight of my shoulders. Luckily I've always had sports during the sometimes harsh periods in school, exercise has always made me feel better.

In the last two years of high school I started windfoiling. Of course something really new for me at that time, because I'd only done  freestyle, wave and freeride windsurfing for the past five years. A foil was totally new for me, just like it had been to any windsurfer at a certain point. Watching increasingly more  reels on instagram about this windfoiling thing, my attention was caught and I created the opportunity to hop on such a windfoiling set. Those first meters of foiling marked the start of an additional path besides  'normal windsurfing' as a common thread trough my youth. An addiction to the silent flying and the speed that can be achieved in really light winds. In addition to windsurfing, ice-skating, sailing, race biking and football, also windfoiling was added to the list of beloved sports. Despite my wallet wasn't too happy, I was more than pleased and grateful to welcome this new sport into my life in the summer of '20. 

 

Now a couple of years later, a lot has happened. I already had made a few steps into the more professional career that lies ahead for some of the iQFOiL-athletes in the Olympic programme. The iQFOiL Class was elected as new Olympic class to replace the old fashioned RS:X for Paris 2024. By being able to train with the RTC Almere and soon after being invited into the NTT, (RTC and NTT abbreviations are made clear in the news items.) I've already had a reasonable period in my two years of windfoiling, in the youth training teams of the 'Watersportverbond'. Sailing a World Championship and an European Championship is already on the resume, and in 2022 I was very excited to add the titles: Dutch Champion Marathon and bronze at the Dutch Championships Courserace. These facts show my steep learning curve, and I would like to continue this upward trend. I'll keep pushing to become better and the results that come with it will be undoubtedly addictive, because winning is  the best feeling there is. 

 

Now that you've gotten to know me a little better, I would like to thank you for your interest and I hope that, perhaps already after reading the introduction or later on after viewing the rest of the website, you will also become as fascinated as me about this beautiful spectacular sport. Or a more achievable goal: even if I get you a tiny little bit more interested in windsurfing, that would be terrific! 

 

Hope to see you soon, and preferably on the water!

 

With very kind regards,

Freerk Blom

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NEWS

YEEHAAWW, Dutch Champion Marathon '22.

Woowww, what a super fun long weekend it has been. It really felt like a vacation in the Caribbean on Texel. An amazing festival, amazing weather, super fun courseracing and to top it off: the Round Texel Race of course. Which obviously was the main reason for our stay on the island. In very light and because of that hard conditions, I managed to take the win and I can now call myself Dutch Champion Marathon.

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Ready to race again!

High school exams are over! There's finally time to race on the course again. The Dutch Championships course was the first competition that I'd been competing in after this long and exhausting mandatory school exam.

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High School exams preparation.

After the Europeans in Croatia last year I haven't been posting blogs as much as I would liked to have done. School has taken an awful lot of time from me, time that I normally would've used to go windsurfing or do something about my updates. But sometimes you have these kind of periods in which you really have to go all in to succeed.

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Croatia, you were amazing...

Eleven days of sun, wind, beach, racing, laughter, emotions and friendship. Eleven days Croatia. It was simply phenomenal, living my best life was made easy over there.  Returning to my home in Friesland with a bit of a hangover. Not from alcohol, but from the harsh reality that live goes on in a much colder and greyer area.

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Opening and first racing day: done :).

When me and the NTT-squad stepped out of the airplane three days ago, the good vibes immediately entered our group. The taxi driver who'd brought us from Split airport to the ferry which carried us towards the island of Brac, was very friendly and informed us about the pleasant and hospitable people in Croatia. He was particularly enthusiastic about, according to him, and according to many, the most beautiful beach in Europe: Zlatni rat.

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Europeans incoming!

It's time to get back into the training after a short summer holiday. Spending free-time with family and friends really is the best, but now it feels good to be back on te iQFOiL Youth gear again. Enjoying a first training given by Jacco Koops, immediately the attention was put on the pumping and the starts.

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iQFOiL Youth and Junior World Championships done.

The worlds of '21 are over, and if I want to I can write a whole book about the new things that I've learnt in the past two weeks in Italy. Very grateful about the way that we as the RTC team cooperated with each other. I won't forget the breakfasts, lunches and diners with the team every day, full of laughter and fun. The members of the team always were standby to help me, and from my side it was the same.

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Baptism of fire in the Worlds; first ever competition for me as a windfoiler.

In the past weeks the preparations had been priority. Preparations for my first ever competition in windfoiling, and let that be the World Championships. At one hand you can say that it maybe isn't too smart to kick of my match sailing career in an international really strong fleet, at the other hand this event will deliver me a big load of experience at the end of the racing week. 

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Marching on from RTC into NTT!

I was overjoyed when I heard that I was allowed to sign a topsport contract with the Regional Training Center in Almere in the fall of 2020. The contract allowed me to join Robbert-Jan van Velzen's windfoil team, and I started participating twice a week on Saturday and Sunday. Robbert-Jan as an experienced trainer offered me the space to develop myself. With video-analysis and technical conversations on the shore, and of course the feedback from my new teammates, I managed to reach a steep learning curve.

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